Empowering Women in Kalimantan to Prevent Stunting

Dear friends,

We hope you are continuing to stay safe and well during this challenging time. We are so grateful for your continuous support to this project and would like to share with you a story of one of our beneficiaries, Santi, a mother of a 2-year-old boy:

When Santi became pregnant with her first child, she prayed her baby would grow healthy and strong. But, he turned out to be small for his age. At 13 months, her son Walid was diagnosed as being "stunted." Poverty and malnutrition are a part of life in Santi’s village in Cibadak, West Java. Her husband’s unpredictable income working as a food vendor did not provide enough for all that Walid's developing body required.

Luckily, upon diagnosis, Walid was included in YUM’s Stunting Program at the monthly health clinic (called Posyandu). Santi took Walid to the Posyandu each month, where YUM staff monitored his height and weight and provided health education. They also gave her food and sanitation packages and a colorful growth chart to hang in her home — a reminder to keep up her efforts towards Walid’s optimal growth. She returned month after month until one happy visit, Walid was declared no longer stunted!

Today, Santi tries her best to keep her son healthy, especially knowing all the challenges he would face later in life had he remained stunted. With the pandemic, her husband’s income has decreased, and providing proper nutrition for Walid is a challenge. Santi continues to visit the monthly Posyandu and is especially grateful to YUM in this uncertain time. She gives thanks that she has learned about stunting and how to prevent it.

Your support is helping hundreds of mothers like Santi to understand what stunting is and to receive the support that they need to keep their children healthy. In times like these, it’s crucial for these Posyandu to remain open as a source of knowledge and monitoring tool to prevent further stunted children in Indonesia.

If you would like to continue helping mothers like Santi, we will be participating in this year’s #GivingTuesday campaign on GlobalGiving. We’d love you to join us and donate to this project because GlobalGiving has $1,000,000 in matching funds for all donations received on December 1st! 

Stay safe,

Yolanda

Dear GlobalGiving donors,

As COVID-19 continues to spread, the future has never felt so unpredictable. These are challenging times for us all, and we hope you’re in good spirits and health! Right now, YUM is doing everything possible to sustain daily operations and continue providing services to our community. Our organization’s program has already been aligning with COVID-19 relief and we are now doubling down on this work. 

YUM works with more than 30,000 people in West Java and Central Kalimantan where, even before the pandemic, more than half of the population met the criteria of poor living conditions, and consequently could not access health and education facilities. In both areas, many workers, mostly informal, have lost their employment and their income creating an increase in the number of poor families and vulnerable groups in Indonesia. Hundreds of families in our community are seeing a decrease or loss of their income every month, and 90% of them have no savings whatsoever.

The rising unemployment is leading to declining purchasing power, subsequently increasing the risk of food insecurity, malnutrition, and stunting in the medium-to-long term. Already, A 2019 Study of Nutritional Status of Children by the Indonesian Health Ministry put Central Kalimantan in the 6th to last position with 32% of children being stunted.  Though West Java fares better, it is still at 26% of children being stunted.

With your help, YUM is planning to focus on providing assistance to poor families, especially those with pregnant mothers, breastfeeding mothers, and children aged 0-2 years old. In both West Java and Central Kalimantan, we plan to support a total of 500 families in 9 villages with 36 Posyandu (Integrated Health Centers), 150 women volunteer health workers, 400 pregnant mothers, and over 2,000 babies and toddlers 0-2 years old. 

These are some of the activities we plan to do:

• Provide basic food packages (rice, oil, eggs) to families who have lost their income and are not receiving assistance from the government
• Provide seeds, compost and tools for families interested in home gardens to complement their nutrition intake
• Empower volunteer health workers by organising trainings on the importance of stunting prevention, prenatal and postnatal counselling, importance of sanitation,  hygiene and nutrition as well as child-rearing advice
• Distribute height charts to families with pregnant mothers and breastfeeding mothers - a Gates Foundation-funded study shows that charts have succeeded in reducing stunting by as much as 22%. These charts not only measure height but also feature necessary information about health practices to improve overall health and prevent stunting. 
• Create communication campaigns, in collaboration with community leaders and volunteer health workers, on stunting, sanitation and hygiene in order to increase local awareness

We cannot thank you enough for your continued support since the beginning of COVID-19. As we adapt to these unprecedented circumstances, we will continue to serve our communities as best we can. Now, more than ever, our community needs us. And we need you. Please help to share this project report to those you think might be interested to help.

 If you are able, please make a donation to this project in the GlobalGiving "Little By Little" Campaign next week (14 - 18th September). Your $50 donation will be matched at 50% during the campaign. More information will be sent to you separately.

 Stay safe and well,

Vanessa Reksodipoetro

Executive Director